Search Results for "xsr900"

n the midst of the anguish and heartache of tragedy can come some of life’s most important lessons. For Dutchman Arjan van den Boom it was the untimely passing of his beloved Father, that came with it the realisation that living his dream to its full potential couldn’t wait another day…

In many ways, Italy‘s OMT Garage is the perfect nuclear racing family. Father Gaetano Troiano started the shop in 1978. Mother Silvana handles the media. And sons Marco and Mario are now pushing things into the 21st century and beyond with their love of racing and customisation. Take this blindingly good Yamaha XSR900 for instance…

Our recent story on the latest cool build from Spain‘s Macco Motors and their work with Dutch watchmakers TW Steel got a particularly positive response from readers right around the world. So when we found out that they had just dropped a slick new video showing the bike in action, we thought that you’d probably like to see it, too.

TW Steel is a Dutch watch manufacturer that builds quality timepieces large enough to beat a man to death with. Recently they’ve been dabbling in the custom motorcycle scene, commissioning a series of bikes based around Yamaha’s incredible, unique-looking lineup. The latest builder to throw their sizeable hat into the ring on behalf of TW Steel is Spain’s Macco Motors, with their brand spanking new XSR900 cafe racer dubbed ‘The Desperado’.

Yamaha‘s MT range is a funny old thing. With a single outing in the noughties in its ‘MT-01’ guise, the segment seemed to be pretty much done and dusted with Yamaha‘s announcement in 2012 that the model was kaput. With the GFC barely over and Japan still reeling from the tsunami, few expected Yamaha to replace this ostentatious, genre-defying brute. And yet they did just that. 12 months later and hey presto, we get the MT-07 & MT-09. Well, not so much ‘we’ as ‘they’ because we’re guess there’s not too many Pipeburn readers who’d be desperate to own one. But now Yamaha has tried to redress that with their XSR700 & XSR900 bikes. With similar underpinnings to the MT models, they’ve enlisted the help of Shinya Kimura and Roland Sands to appeal to ‘us’ and the new-school custom scene as a whole. So, have they succeeded, or have they flunked out? Step into today’s class and let’s find out.

Motorcycles seem to be vehicle de jour in Hollywood of late. Whether it’s Mission Impossible, Bourne or Bond, there’s bound to be some cool moto action sequence spread all across their trailers. And without fail, the evil assassins will be the ones riding black bikes, all dressed in black…

If you’ve ever ridden any of the larger capacity UJMs, you’ll know that a lack of caution when applying the throttle can be a biblical experience, metaphorically or otherwise. With sub three second 0-100 times for most of these colossally-motored motos…

When Yamaha released the bonkers street-naked MT-09 with its lush torquey triple, the promise from the Japanese firm was that a baby brother was soon to follow. It seemed an odd move and out of step with most model line-up launches, where the most exciting stuff is saved for last lest the “lesser” bikes be overshadowed. But as soon as the first journalist cracked the throttle of the twin cylinder MT-07, any fears were quickly allayed. This was one hell of a fun machine! Now entering its fourth year of production, Yamaha Canada decided it was time to show the world that the little street weapon had more than one trick up its sleeve. So having seen the work of Rob Chappell of Origin8or Custom Cycles in Ontario, they brought him in to create another Yard Built beauty. Eagerly ready to take on the mission, Rob promised he’d deliver a bike that anyone at Yamaha would love to own. It was no empty threat, and the result is this go anywhere fun machine known as ‘60/40’.

It’s amazing how much the big motorcycle manufacturers have changed in the past ten years. Up until very recently, bike customisers were little more than pariahs to the factories. All their hard engineering work, undone in the fell swoop of an errant oxy torch or angle grinder. You could almost hear the engineers in Japan and Europe weeping in pain. And as for a factory dealer that might dare to try and make a few changes to the merchandise? If they were lucky, they’d find themselves selling second-hand Dneprs in Siberia… in winter. But my, what a difference a decade makes. Suddenly it’s raining factory customs. And for Yamaha, that means throwing money behind their ‘Faster Sons’ custom shop collaboration project. And the latest star of the decidedly successful program is this here XSR700 from French shop Motomax Metz. A French shop that just happens to be a dealer, too.

Cast your mind back. Way back. Back to a time when blogs like Pipeburn were nothing more than a twinkle in their creator’s eye. Back before you’d see cafe racers running around the streets and filling up Youtube videos. Now you’re in the mid noughties. The more lucky ones amongst us had already seen the online images showing the amazing creations that were coming out of Japanese bike shops. If you were smitten with these bikes like us and you wanted to get yourself something similar without spending two years in a cold, greasy garage, you had exactly two factory bikes to choose from. Namely the super expensive Ducati Sport Classic and the much more reasonable (and much more British) TriumphThruxton 900. While the Thruxton reviews at the time weren’t exactly glowing, I think it’s fair to say that the sportsbike-obsessed journos of the day kind of missed the point. Because here was a bike that was ten years ahead of the cafe racer curve and very ripe for the picking. Now it’s ten years later, and Hinckley have gone and done what everyone was hoping for. They’ve dropped a brand new Thruxton model. Too late to be great, or an instant classic? You’re about to find out.